


Rekindle

by Mertiya



Series: Glimx2 [3]
Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Canon Non-Binary Character, DT continues to be a trash fire, Explicit Language, Friendship, Glimmer is traumatized, Near Future, Other, Rescue Missions, minor background catradora
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-04
Updated: 2020-01-04
Packaged: 2021-02-27 12:55:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22117483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mertiya/pseuds/Mertiya
Summary: In the wake of Horde Prime's arrival, Glimmer is in despair, a prisoner on his ship.Something will have to be done about that.
Relationships: Double Trouble/Glimmer (She-Ra)
Series: Glimx2 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1584991
Comments: 25
Kudos: 64





	Rekindle

Etheria is a bright, glowing gem in the center of the window, framed by an elegant, silver sill. Glimmer runs her fingers across the glass—she would have expected it to be cold, but it’s a pleasant neutral temperature. The room itself is large, just a shade away from opulent, with a long, low couch along one wall and a soft bed along the other. There is no apparent door.

Glimmer presses her lips together, willing them to stop trembling. She is the queen. You have to accept your failures as well as your successes when you are queen, but there are hot tears pricking at her eyes. _Mother_ , she thinks, her fingernails digging into the palm of her hand. _I’m so sorry._ She wasn’t good enough. Not for Etheria, not for her friends, not for herself. The only reason she’s even still alive is because of Catra. Why did she do that? Why would she save Glimmer? Why would she protect Etheria? She’s the one who nearly _destroyed_ it.

Something bright and hot and painful flares up in Glimmer’s chest, and she turns with a yell and punches the wall, hard. There’s a _crack_! and purple flickers briefly across her hand. The wall cracks slightly, and now at least her painful hand is a distraction from what she’s done. Adora was right about her, all along.

She wishes Horde Prime would torture her. It would be a better distraction. It would give her something to fight and make her feel less complicit in whatever’s going to happen. She would give anything to keep her planet safe, but there might be nothing left that she can give. This might be the end. She sobs, leaning against the window.

The door opens behind her with a whooshing noise to reveal one of those blank-faced clones with the glowing green eyes. “Horde Prime wants to speak with you,” he says.

“I don't care what Horde Prime wants,” Glimmer responds frostily.

The clone merely stands and watches her, and she cradles her hand against her chest before bowing to the inevitable, putting her chin in the air and marching out the door. She’s a queen. She has to remember that.

He takes her down several corridors she doesn’t recognize. They pass several other clones, a few of whom glance up incuriously, then look back down. Glimmer wonders how far they’re going and why—this is definitely not the way back to Horde Prime’s throne room. Maybe he _is_ going to torture her. Well, she deserves it, and it’s…it’s easy, in a sense.

They take a sharp right and pause in front of a very heavy-looking door, where the clone instructs her to hold still and bends forward to put a hand and an eye in front of two glowing panels on the left. The panels hum, flash green, and chime. The door slides open. The clone pushes her through. At the end of this short passage, she can see a cavernous room, dimly lit, filled with sleek grey shapes. Beyond it, the black sky studded with tiny glowing lights. She’s still not used to the stars.

Two steps down the passage, she hears the chime again. “Whoop,” says the clone, grabbing her shoulder, then hisses, “Whatever you do, stay quiet,” in her ear, and pushes her sideways into the wall. There’s another whooshing noise, and she’s being pulled into a dark, enclosed space that smells suspiciously sharp. Cleaning supplies?

“What—” Glimmer starts to say, and an arm pulls her against a chest that doesn’t feel like the clone. Before she can say anything else, there are lips on hers, and she freezes, voice fading. She can feel a heart beating rapidly against her chest.

“Trust me, darling,” murmurs the figure whose arms are around her. “Shhh.”

“ _Double Trouble_?” Glimmer hisses.

Another kiss effectively silences her, and she’s backed up against the wall. Double Trouble holds her still and quiet, and Glimmer hears movement in the passage outside, suddenly realizing what a precarious position they’re in. Footsteps pause for a moment and then continue.

Glimmer waits, a little stunned, until Double Trouble moves away again. “All right, coast’s clear,” they say after a moment.

“How did you— _why_ did you—”

“I do hope you’re still paying me, darling. It will be very embarrassing for both of us if I don’t get paid.”

Glimmer sighs, but she lets Double Trouble take her hand and lead her out the door and down the passageway into the large room at the end. She stops again when she realizes where she’s being taken is Mara’s ship, humming bright with power. Glimmer’s heart thuds in her chest, and Double Trouble shoos her up into it, into the cockpit, where Bow and Adora are sitting.

A sob catches in Glimmer’s throat, and she stops in the doorway. Adora and Bow look up, their faces light up, and they both leap to their feet and run over. Adora is laughing and Bow is crying, and Glimmer doesn’t know what’s happening inside her as her friends’ arms fall around her, but suddenly her knees aren’t working anymore at all. Adora catches her before she can hit the ground, and Glimmer can’t believe how worried she looks.

“Are you okay?” Adora demands, and this time Glimmer bursts into tears. She’s wailing and she can’t stop. Bow rubs worried circles over her back, and she doesn’t _deserve_ him. She’s crying like a baby, huge wracking sobs. “What did he do to you?” Adora asks desperately. “Glimmer, are you hurt?”

“I thought you _hated_ me!” Glimmer wails. “You _should_ hate me!”

Adora stares at her. “What?” she says. “No! Glimmer, no. Never. Of course not.”

Glimmer sniffed. There was snot leaking down her face. She was a mess. “I can’t believe you came for me,” she said pathetically, rubbing a hand across her face.

“Of course we came for you,” Bow says, putting his hands protectively on her shoulders. “You’re our _friend_ , Glimmer. Just because we’ve had a few fights—”

Glimmer choked on hollow laughter. “A _few_! And I’ve—I’ve—” she stared out miserably at the night sky. “Etheria,” she says, drawing her knees into her chest. “I’ve betrayed it, haven’t I?”

“Look,” says Bow. “Whatever happened, it’s happened. We need to focus on how to fix things now.”

She nods shakily, because he’s right. Either way, it’s not time for her self-recriminations right now. “We’ve got you,” Adora says. “We’ll get you back to Bright Moon, and then from there we’ll—”

“Catra!” Glimmer blurts, suddenly, and Adora cuts herself off, flinching, looking confused. “I—I mean she’s here,” Glimmer continues. “She’s here and she—” It galls her to admit it, because there’s still that little voice in her mind yelling that Adora is _her_ friend, but right now maybe it’s more important to think strategically. Catra could be valuable to them, if she could be persuaded to work with them. And she did— “She saved my life. I think.”

That look on Adora’s face. Glimmer looks away and finds herself looking at Double Trouble, who is watching the proceedings with an intense, absorbed expression, but that impersonal interest is still easier for Glimmer to look at. They catch her looking, smile, and wave their fingers.

“All right,” Glimmer says, sniffing again. “Double Trouble, can you go get Catra? You’ll be paid better, of course.”

The smile widens, and Double Trouble bows. “I’d be ever so happy to help, darling.”

~

They hear Catra before they see her. She is squalling loudly and Double Trouble is trying to hush her. “Where are you taking me?” Catra yells, and Adora hurries out of the ship. “This isn’t Horde Prime’s—uh—A-Adora?”

Glimmer pokes her head out. Adora is standing at the bottom of the entrance to the ship. “Did you really save Glimmer’s life?” she asks, and Catra’s ears flick backwards.

“Maybe,” she mutters. “So what?”

Adora holds out her hand. “Will you come with us? We need to save Etheria.”

Catra shuffles. “I guess I don’t really want the _planet_ to be destroyed.”

Glimmer valiantly forebears from saying anything about the destruction of space and time. She is a _queen_ , she tells herself. She does, however, look away from the little tableau, and then she hears that chime again, and the hair goes up on the back of her neck. “Adora!” she calls, but before she can do anything more than that, there’s a whining, shrieking noise, and a thud-thud-thud of far too many boots, and all of a sudden the quiet spaceship port is under heavy fire.

Glimmer runs down the plank. “Come on!” she yells. Catra and Double Trouble are running for her and Adora has her hand out for Catra. “Get into the ship!” Glimmer shouts above the whine of the energy weapons. A stray shot sizzles into the ground by her foot, but she doesn’t flinch. She won’t flinch. She is the _queen_. She is going to make damn sure everyone else gets into the shi—

“Down!” Double Trouble launches themself at her, and the next thing she knows she’s on her back, with the other’s weight bearing her into the ground.

“Up, up, up!” Bow appears from nowhere, and his and Adora’s arms grab Double Trouble and Glimmer and pull them up in the shrieking confusion. They stumble into the ship and collapse into the seats. “Take us to Etheria!” Adora yells, and the ship shudders, and then it goes from sitting still into rapid, jerky movement. Glimmer’s stomach flips over, and she reaches out to clutch at the back of the seat near her.

As the ship stabilizes, she looks over at the others, all of whom are collapsed in various states of stunned disarray. Adora’s hair is all over the place. Catra’s hair is standing out in literally every direction and her tail is a kinked, unhappy line as her claws clutch at the seat. Bow is breathing out and shaking his head. And Double Trouble—

Double Trouble has one hand pressed to their midsection. They’re leaning a little sideways, with a slightly stunned expression on their face. “Double Trouble?” Glimmer says uncertainly. They give her a vague smile and take their hand away and hold it up. There’s something sticky and green on it. Glimmer’s gaze skitters from that to the burned hole in the center of their black outfit, to the flesh beneath, which isn’t intact—

“ _Double Trouble_!” She’s across the cockpit fast enough to catch them as they slowly fall to the side, and she gets them into a lying position on the ground with their head in her lap. They put a hand on their forehead and blink their nictating membranes slowly.

“Ow…” they say softly.

“What happened?”

A sweet smile that would have fit better on Flutterina’s face than Double Trouble’s. “Oh, darling.” They cupped her cheek with one long-fingered hand. “I couldn’t let them shoot you, could I?” 

“Why not!” Glimmer demands. “You’re a mercenary. You don’t care about me! We established this!”

A wry eyebrow. “Do you really want to be shot?” They grit their teeth. They’re sweating and pale, and Glimmer presses her hand to the injury in their abdomen.

“Adora!” she says urgently. “Please! You have to help!”

Adora’s on the floor beside the two of them in an instant, reaching for her sword—which isn’t there. Where is her sword? “I…” she trails off. “I can’t. The sword’s broken.”

“ _What_?!”

“I had to break it to stop the Heart of Etheria from destroying the planet,” Adora mumbles. “Oh, Glimmer, I’m so sorry.”

Glimmer stares blankly down at Double Trouble, brushing their hair out of their eyes. No. No, no, _no_. No, she can’t have done that. And this. She can’t have done all this. She’s the queen. No. She’s just Glimmer. No. “You’re going to be fine,” she says to Double Trouble, pressing her hands against their abdomen, rubbing her cheek along their hand.

“Do you remember—when we danced together?” They sound like it’s hard to talk.

Glimmer’s cheeks are wet. “I…”

“At Princess Prom.”

Princess Prom seems so far away now, like a beautiful dream. She never really thought about that. She’d forgotten. “Yes,” she whispers.

“Oh, good.” The nictating membranes flicker, once, twice. Double Trouble sighs softly, and then she feels their hand go limp against her cheek and then fall, their head dropping to the side, eyes still wide open but somehow empty.

The cockpit is silent. Not even Catra is moving. Glimmer stares down at Double Trouble. A sob catches in Glimmer’s throat, and she presses her hand to her mouth.

Then Double Trouble’s nictating membranes blink, and they sit up cheerfully. “Ooh, _subtle_ grief,” they say. “An excellent choice.”

Catra’s voice breaks the silence next, as Glimmer tries to process this. “What the _fuck_?” she demands.

“Did you like it?” Double Trouble asks eagerly, tail lashing. “I’ve never had the opportunity to do a tragic death scene before.”

_SLAP!_ Glimmer’s hand moves before she’s even realized it, catching Double Trouble across the cheek. They blink several times in surprise. “It wasn’t _that_ bad, surely?”

“I thought you—” Glimmer cuts herself off, and then—again before she’s had a chance to think, she puts both hands on Double Trouble’s shoulders and kisses them, hard and deep and biting. Somewhere, Bow makes a sputtering, disbelieving noise.

“Uh…” says Catra. “Uh, so are you two, like…?”

“They’re _dead_ ,” Glimmer says as she breaks the kiss.

“I think you’ll find that I’m—”

“Because I am _going to kill you_.”

Double Trouble giggles. “Oh, you really _did_ buy into that scene, didn’t you, love?”

“What else was I supposed to—oh, you are just awful!”

They flick her nose, which she isn’t expecting. “And you’re just adorable.” They wince. “It really did hurt, you know,” they say pathetically, pulling aside their black outfit to show a much less terrifying-looking burn across their upper ribs. “So I hope you’ll give me a good bonus for that, Your Majesty.”

“You’ve been very much trying my goodwill,” Glimmer says, because she _is_ the queen. And then, because it’s been a very long day, and she’s tired and scared and the adrenaline is starting to fall away, she sighs and flops forward against them. Adora pats her shoulder, and Double Trouble pats her head.

“And scene,” she hears them say with satisfaction as she listens to their heart beating loudly in her ear.


End file.
